HARRY POTTER MANIA WAS IN FULL SWING DURING  THE SUMMER OF 2000 WHEN YELLOW WORKED SOME TRANSPORTATION WIZARDRY THAT HELPED SCHOLASTIC INC. MEET PRECISE DELIVERY REQUIREMENTS FOR THE LONG-AWAITED FOURTH INSTALLMENT OF THE THE ACCLAIMED SERIES.

(left to right) Scholastic Director of Distribution, Lance Robinson and Manager of Delivery Services, Roger Brauner with Exact Express Account Manager, Dale Philipp and Senior Account Manager, Larry Northway

Yellow made the deliveries to retail booksellers and specialty children’s stores in 36 states without the help of "floo powder" or any of the other magical stuff that wizards use to travel. Instead, the shipments moved via Exact Express, the Yellow expedited, time-definite, air and ground delivery service with the industry’s only 100 percent satisfaction guarantee.

The first three Harry Potter books by British author J.K. Rowling had been runaway best-sellers. The fourth, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, generated interest perhaps unprecedented in publishing history. Even the book title was a secret until just before its July 8 release date. Scholastic went to extraordinary lengths to ensure that information about the book was not given out in advance.

Amid the fanfare, getting the books into dealers’ hands posed a real logistics challenge. Yellow devised a distribution plan for Scholastic that was precise in scope, detail and execution. Books were shipped direct to destination cities, bypassing distribution centers that would normally reroute them. All shipments were shrink-wrapped and sealed with security tape in accordance with prescribed methods for safeguarding high-value shipments.

In fact, security was a big issue throughout the distribution process. Trailers were locked during transit and hand signatures by managers were required at each transfer point. Drivers were required to call their home service facilities after completing each delivery.

Larry Northway, senior account manager, worked closely with Scholastic management in development of the plan, along with Dale Philipp, a member of the Exact Express service team.

Northway spent four days at the Scholastic distribution center in Jefferson City, Mo. supervising loading of the books onto Yellow trailers. He made sure orders were loaded in sequence and that each pallet was properly labeled and loaded to the correct destination.

Deliveries were made on July 5 and 6 to hundreds of small booksellers and specialty retailers, who typically have limited receiving facilities or are located in hard-to-reach malls and other commercial districts. Yet, all deliveries were made 100 percent on time, with zero shortages and with all boxes in "factory fresh" condition, just as they had left the printing house.

"This was one of the largest, most complex time-critical rollouts we have ever executed and it went flawlessly," Northway says. "Scholastic had a very unique product distribution challenge and we were very proud to come through for them."